Automated near surface analysis by surface-consistent refraction methods

ABSTRACT

A surface-consistent refraction analysis automatically derives near surface corrections during seismic data processing. Residual time lags are evaluated in multiple CMP-offset-azimuth bins by similarity analysis with a pilot trace where a correlation window is centered at the refracted arrival. The similarity analysis may take the form of computerized cross-correlation, or other criteria such as semblance. The residuals are then used to build a system of linear equations that is simultaneously inverted for surface-consistent shot and receiver time shift corrections plus a possible subsurface residual term. The refraction analysis steps are completely automated and require a fraction of the time needed for conventional near surface analysis.

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional PatentApplication No. 62/269,312 filed Dec. 18, 2015 entitled “AUTOMATED NEARSURFACE ANALYSIS BY SURFACE-CONSISTENT REFRACTION METHODS.”

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to geophysical exploration, and moreparticularly to seismic surveying and processing of seismic data andsurface-consistent refraction analysis for deriving near surfacecorrections of the seismic data.

2. Description of the Related Art

The seismic industry has been trending towards dramatic increases in thenumber of the seismic acquisition channels. The increased availabilityof data which are acquired in seismic surveys with increased acquisitionchannels has made available the recording of full azimuth data at anunprecedented spatial resolution.

Conventional seismic data processing and analysis methods that weredeveloped some several years ago are being found unsuitable to handlethe large amount of data provided by modern seismic acquisition systems.One area of seismic processing chain that is showing difficulties tocope with the increased size of the seismic datasets is near surfaceanalysis. For example, analysis of the near surface in search of subtleanomalies has been a problem. These subtle anomalies can havesignificant impact in the imaging of low relief structures and ofstratigraphic traps.

So far as is known, pressing methodology for the purpose of analysis ofthe near surface is still based on interactive procedures where theinput of the analyst is required. An example of processing requiringinput by an analyst before analysis of the near surface is theestimation of refraction arrivals through semi-automated first break(FB) picking which requires time-consuming human intervention to qualitycontrol the data.

High resolution velocity analysis for the near surface could be providedby full-waveform inversion (FWI) methods. However, full wave inversionof the increased size seismic datasets requires large amounts ofcomputational power, in fact often unmanageable amounts when consideringthe case of three dimensional (3D) elastic wave analysis. Moreover, fullwave inversion processing of the increased size seismic datasets hasexhibited sensitivity to noise and free surface effects such as surfacewaves. Full wave inversion processing of this type also requires seismicwaves at low frequencies to avoid the effects of what are known as cycleskips. In addition, full wave inversion processing has required goodvelocity models as a starting point in order to limit the non-linearityof the problem.

Seismic tomography methods, commonly used in seismic data processing,whether for near surface or other purposes, also show difficulties inadapting to the volumes of data and need to compromise between thedensity of information and a viable parameterization of the models.Non-linear inversion methods are computationally demanding in that asingle computer processing run of the massive amounts of data requiresseveral inner iterations, and also several computer processing runs arerequired for exploring the parameter space and the initial model space.

There have been increasing numbers of seismic data channels becomingavailable from sampling with large redundancy every few meters of thesubsurface, resulting in several billions of traces. However, seismicprocessing methods currently in use to analyze the near surface are notable to take full advantage of the redundancy of the informationprovided. So far as is known, effective processing of the amount ofinformation, to provide high resolution velocity models for sharp andaccurate near surface corrections, has not been available.

One alternative approach of near surface correction, used with theconditions of dense subsurface sampling and large redundancy, is basedon adoption of broad-sense statistical methods. Under certain acceptablesimplifying assumptions based on the physics of the problem, these haveoffered robust, quick and effective solutions to seismic imaging. Oneexample of this sort is the well-known collection of surface-consistentalgorithms for processing seismic reflection data. In this context, theterm surface-consistent are defined to mean that a given location on theearth surface is associated with a fixed time delay without regard tothe total wave path. This type of processing has been effectively usedin everyday processing work. Calculation of surface-consistentreflection residual statics is a fundamental step in land seismic dataprocessing. Surface-consistent residual statics techniques of this typesolve the short wavelength/high frequency component of near surfacecorrection to improve the coherency of reflected events, and enhancingthe imaging of the subsurface geology. Reflection statics are based oncross-correlation of high frequency seismic signals. For this reason,preventive application of long wavelength refraction statics is requiredalign the traces and avoid cycle skipping. In a conventional seismicprocessing workflow the long wavelength component of the static solutionis obtained through the laborious analysis and inversion of refracteddata.

The adoption of surface-consistent approaches for the analysis of firstbreak of first break data has been proposed as a methodology for takingadvantage of the redundancy provided by high-channel count seismicacquisition systems. Statistical analysis in a surface-consistentfashion of large volumes of data was envisioned as a potential solutionto robust quality control of first break travel times and for reductionof overall turnaround time for near surface analysis.

It has also been proposed to incorporate first break data in an existingsurface-consistent deconvolution procedure. The surface-consistentdeconvolution processing could permit derivation of attribute maps, suchas scaled velocities, under certain conditions. The conditions were thatthese attribute maps had to correlate well with the expected geology,and exhibit sealed travel times which matched the general behavior ofthe input data.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

Briefly, the present invention provides a new and improved computerimplemented method of forming measures of near surface corrections ofseismic survey data in the form of a set of seismic survey tracesobtained from records of seismic energy travel from seismic sources toan array of seismic detector geophones during a seismic survey. Aseismic trace first break dataset detected by the array of detectorgeophones during the survey as a result of first arrival times at thedetector geophones of seismic energy from the sources is assembling inthe computer. The arrival times of the first break dataset are sortedinto offset bins of a travel time attribute cube according to commonmidpoints for retracted seismic wave travel between the seismic sourcesand individual ones of the detector geophones of the array. The commonmidpoints being organized into dimensional offsets of the detectorgeophones of the array. Anomalous arrival times are removed from thesorted arrival times in the offset bias to form refined first breakdatasets. Common midpoint velocity functions are formed for the tracesof the offset bins based on the first break datasets, and measures offield static corrections are formed for traces of the offset bins basedon the common midpoint velocity functions. The measures of field staticscorrections are applied to the traces of the sets of seismic surveytraces to form a set of field statics corrected seismic traces, andmeasures of refraction residual statics corrections are formed for thetraces of set of field statics corrected seismic traces. The measures ofretraction residual statics corrections are applied to the traces of setof field statics corrected seismic traces to form near surface correctedseismic traces.

The present invention also provides a new and improved data processingsystem forming measures of near surface corrections of seismic surveydata in the form of a set of seismic survey traces obtained from recordsof seismic energy travel from seismic sources to an array of seismicdetector geophones during a seismic survey. The data processing systemincludes a processor which performs an ordered sequence of steps whichbegin with assembling in the computer a seismic trace first breakdataset detected by the array of detector geophones during the survey asa result of first arrival times at the detector geophones of seismicenergy from the sources. The processor then sorts the arrival times ofthe first break dataset into offset bins of a travel time attribute cubeaccording to common midpoints for refracted seismic wave travel betweenthe seismic sources and individual ones of the detector geophones of thearray, the common midpoints being organized into dimensional offsets ofthe detector geophones of the array. The processor removes anomalousarrival times from the sorted arrival times in the offset bins to formrefined first break datasets, and forms common midpoint velocityfunctions for the traces of the offset bins based on the first breakdatasets. The processor then forms measures of field static correctionsfor traces of the offset bins based on the common midpoint velocityfunctions, and applies the measures of field statics corrections to thetraces of the set of seismic survey traces to form a set of fieldstatics corrected seismic traces. The processor then forms measures ofrefraction residual statics corrections for the traces of set of fieldstatics corrected seismic traces and applies the measures of refractionresidual statics corrections to the traces of set of field staticscorrected seismic traces to form near surface corrected seismic traces.The data processing system also includes a memory receiving for storagethe near surface corrected seismic traces.

The present invention also provides a new and improved data storagedevice having stored in a non-transitory computer readable mediumcomputer operable instructions for causing a data processing system toform forming measures of near surface corrections of seismic survey datain the form of a set of seismic survey traces obtained from records ofseismic energy travel from seismic sources to an array of seismicdetector geophones during a seismic survey. The instructions stored inthe data storage device cause the data processing system to assemble inthe computer a seismic trace first break dataset detected by the arrayof detector geophones during the survey as a result of first arrivaltimes at the detector geophones of seismic energy from the sources. Thestored instructions cause sorting of the arrival times of the firstbreak dataset into offset bins of a travel time attribute cube accordingto common midpoints for refracted seismic wave travel between theseismic sources and individual ones of the detector geophones of thearray, the common midpoints being organized into dimensional offsets ofthe detector geophones of the array. The instructions in the datastorage device then came removal of anomalous arrival times from thesorted arrival times in the offset bins to form refined first breakdatasets. The instructions also cause forming of common midpointvelocity functions for the traces of the offset bins based on the firstbreak datasets, and forming measures of field static corrections fortraces of the offset bins based on the common midpoint velocityfunctions. The instructions cause the processor to then apply themeasures of field statics corrections to the traces of the set ofseismic survey traces to form a set of field statics corrected seismictraces, and form measures of refraction residual statics corrections forthe traces of set of field statics corrected seismic traces. Theinstructions then cause the data processing system to apply the measuresof refraction residual statics corrections to the traces of set of fieldstatics corrected seismic traces to form near surface corrected seismictraces.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1A is a schematic diagram illustrating travel of reflected waveseismic energy through a near surface region of the earth during aseismic survey.

FIG. 1B is a schematic diagram illustrating travel of refracted waveseismic energy through a near surface region of the earth during aseismic survey.

FIG. 2A is a schematic diagram of a hypercube of a seismic travel timeattribute according to the present invention.

FIG. 2B is a schematic diagram of a bin form the hypercube of FIG. 2Adivided into azimuthal sectors.

FIG. 2C is a schematic diagram of statistics obtained for the seismictravel time attribute for a data bin of the hypercube of FIG. 2A.

FIG. 2D is an example plot of a travel time common offset map andattendant color key formed according to the present invention.

FIG. 3A is a plot of a cubic spline fit of travel time/offsetdistribution for model travel time data.

FIG. 3B is a plot of true and recovered velocity models of a layeredvelocity model.

FIG. 4 is a functional block diagram of a flow chart of data processingsteps for automatic near surface analysis by surface-consistentrefraction according to the present invention.

FIG. 5 is a functional block diagram of a flow chart of data processingsteps for first break pick prediction during the automatic near surfaceanalysis data processing steps of FIG. 4.

FIG. 6 is a schematic diagram of a data processing system according tothe present invention for processing seismic data according to theprocesses of FIGS. 4 and 5.

FIGS. 7A, 7B and 7C are plots of example seismic traces of first breakpicks during the data processing steps of FIG. 4.

FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C are plots of example data during processingaccording to the present invention to provide common midpoint (CMP)velocity models according to the present invention.

FIGS. 9A and 9B are plots of field statics according to tomographicvelocity field processing compared against results obtained according tothe present invention.

FIGS. 10A, 10B, 10C and 10D are plots of field statics according totomographic velocity field processing compared against results obtainedduring successive stages of processing according to the presentinvention.

FIGS. 11A, 11B and 11C are plots of time slices according to applicationof statics models to seismic data compared against results obtainedaccording to the present invention.

FIGS. 12A, 12B and 12C are another set of plots of time slices accordingto application of statics models to seismic data compared againstresults obtained according to the present invention.

FIGS. 13A and 13B are plots of a seismic cross-line according totomographic processing compared against results obtained according tothe present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the drawings, FIG. 1A illustrates schematically a plot of seismicwave travel resulting from the performance of a two-dimensionalreflection seismic survey along a seismic line of profile along alongitudinal direction or line of profile L over a region R of theearth. The present invention is equally applicable to three-dimensionalsurveys or to two intersecting rectangular lines of profile, as well.

As indicated schematically in FIG. 1A, seismic energy is imparted at anumber of elastic wave sources or shot points 20 along the line ofprofile L for travel along travel paths 22 through a succession ofsubsurface formation layers for receipt at a number of detectorgeophones 24 along the line of profile. The detector geophones 24 serveas sensors or receivers of the seismic energy imparted by the sources20.

Seismic energy from the sources travels as waves as indicated at 22downwardly from the sources 20 through a number of subsurface layers atincreasing depths in the earth. At each successive interface betweenadjacent layers, because of the differing acoustic velocity (i.e.seismic impedance) a portion of the seismic energy is reflected as shownschematically at interfaces 26 and 28 as reflected waves and travels tothe sensor geophones 24. The reflected energy sensed is then recordedand stored for seismic data processing to locate and identify subsurfaceof interest for the purpose of exploration and production ofhydrocarbons. In such data processing, the energy sensed at particulargroupings of sensors 24 are assembled as functions of a common timescale into what are known as seismic data gathers.

FIG. 1A illustrates schematically what is known as a common midpointgather or CMP gather. In the CMP gather of FIG. 1A, seismic data tracesfrom a reflection seismic survey resulting from reflected wave energyimparted at each of a set of individual shot points 20 and received atassociated sensors 24 are assembled for subsequent processing inaccordance with the present invention. The individual shot points 20 andtheir associated receivers 24 in the CMP gather are equally spaced fromeach other on the earth surface from a common midpoint 30, equidistantbetween each source and receiver set or pair.

FIG. 1B illustrates schematically a plot of seismic wave travelresulting from the performance of a two-dimensional refraction seismicsurvey along a seismic line of profile along the longitudinal directionor line of profile L over the surface region R. As indicatedschematically in FIG. 1B, seismic energy is imparted at the shot points20 along the line of profile L for travel through the earth for receiptat the sensor or detector geophones 24 along the line of profile. Thepresent invention is equally applicable to three-dimensional surveys orto two intersecting rectangular lines of profile, as well. The plots ofFIGS. 1A and 1B typically formed as a result of a single survey, withportions of the seismic energy from the shot points 20 travellingthrough the earth as reflected energy waves as shown in FIG. 1A andother portions of the seismic energy traveling as refracted energy wavesas shown in FIG. 1B.

At each of succession of increasingly deeper interfaces betweensubsurface formation layers, each identified by reference numeral 32,portions of the seismic energy from the sources 20 rather than beingreflected as shown in FIG. 1A is refracted as shown in FIG. 1B at eachof the interfaces 32. The refracted energy at an example one of theinterfaces 32 travels along such interface as a refracted wave indicatedat 34 for some distance as shown in FIG. 1B until the refracted waveenergy travels upwardly to the detector geophones 24. Refracted wavestravel along other interfaces between other layers as indicated in FIG.1B. In the idealized model depicted in FIG. 1B (velocity increasing withdepth), the offset is the main parameter controlling the depth ofpenetration of refracted waves 34.

Thus, as shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, in seismic surveying when the earthis excited with energy from the elastic wave sources 20, the wavepropagation are approximated and described by rays. Reflected waves suchas at 22 and refracted waves such as at 34 are scattered at velocityinterfaces such as 26, 28 and 32. The present invention utilizes thisphysical manifestation of seismic energy travel indicated schematicallyin FIGS. 1A and 1B for a methodology of automated near surface analysisby surface-consistent refraction, as will be described below. Thepresent invention involves the seismic data processing sequence and isperformed to provide an iterative methodology implemented in computersboth for refinement of automated near surface analysis bysurface-consistent refraction. The present invention is to a greatextent automated and is based on robust statistics.

The common midpoint (CMP) sorting domain is assumed to represent thecommon subsurface structure. This assumption developed for reflectedwaves such as shown schematically in FIG. 1A is also applicable to asurface-consistent representation of refracted waves, such as that shownschematically in FIG. 1B. With refracted waves such as shown in FIG. 1B,differently from reflections, each source-receiver pair is spaced atdifferent offset from each of the other source-receiver pairs, butshares the same common midpoint or CMP 30. The data obtained fromprocessing refracted wave energy of the type shown schematically in FIG.1B from each source-receiver pair provides information about a differentpart of the structure: a different depth and a different seismicvelocity.

For refracted waves, with the present invention, it has been found thatan effective and concise representation of the subsurface structure isobtained from the binning in the CMP and offset domains. The process ofbinning in the CMP and offset domains is schematically illustrated FIGS.2A through 2D.

With the present invention, a large three dimensional first breakdataset is organized in a single cubic volume C (FIG. 2A) composed of anumber of voxels or bins of 50, where each voxel 50 stores a collectionof first break picks occurring in a three dimensional space. In theembodiment of FIG. 2A, the cubic volume C is composed along intersectionaxes of offset spacing times based on a CMP-X spacing as indicated at52, a CMP-Y offset spacing as indicated at 54, and an offset spacing asindicated at 56. Within each voxel 50 statistics are calculated on thefirst break data assigned to that voxel to determine multimodaldistributions of travel times and derive robust travel time estimates(according to mean, median, mode, standard deviation, kurtosis, andother suitable statistical accuracy analytical measures) related toazimuthal sectors allocated to the bin or voxel 50.

The multidimensional binning thus results in a 3D dataset of first breaktravel times, where first break data are sorted in CMP-offset-azimuth(XYOA) bins 50. The XYOA bins 50 as indicated in FIG. 2B providestructural information in the offset plane (subsurface consistency) andinput to surface-consistent information when evaluated across theoffsets.

This methodology allows statistical representation in a single volume ofa large three dimensional first break pick dataset into a singleorganizational module for processing and analysis. The present inventionassembles data representing common physical features into a group forstatistical analysis, rejection of anomalous or aberrant first breakpicks, which are known as outliers, and verification of the consistencyof the results relative to the underlying geology. Statistics areperformed in each bin to evaluate mean values and to reject outliers. Avisual inspection of the first break pick dataset is made possible bydissecting the obtained volume with various planes and, as an additionalstep, analytical functions are derived to describe the distribution ofthe property in the volume and to possibly predict data where gaps arepresent.

As an additional dimension of binning, the XYO bin is preferably furtherdivided in azimuthal sectors (XYOA bin) (FIG. 2B) to provide anadditional parameter to the analysis and to implement azimuth-dependentstatistics. The four-dimensional hypercube C so formed are analyzed,e.g. by slicing it through different offset/azimuth planes (displayed inFIG. 2D is an offset=2,000 m, with an azimuth of ±45° N). The resultinghypercube C enables the collection of large volumes of data and theefficient statistical analysis across multiple domains. First breaktravel times from large 3D surveys are quickly represented in thefour-dimensional hypercube C and quality controlled for identificationof outliers and/or for geometry errors. The methodology according to thepresent invention can also be extended to seismic traces as therefracted events can show a sub-horizontal alignment in a XYO bin.

After binning all the traces and the first break picks, statistics arecalculated in each bin (mean, median, mode, standard deviation,cross-correlation, etc.). These multi-dimensional attribute cubes havebeen found to be an useful quality control tool as they allowvisualization of the spatial trends of the travel time (mean values) andthe noisy areas (standard deviation). A rejection of outliers is readilyimplemented by discarding the first break picks that differsignificantly (for example) from the mean value, using an adaptivescheme that takes into account the standard deviation to determine therejection threshold. The mean value as a rejection of outliers can bereadily implemented. One can also use statistical measures differentfrom the mean, such as the median or other statistical measures for thispurpose.

FIG. 2C illustrates schematically an example statistical representationof the distribution for a single voxel 50 of the cube C of FIG. 2A. Thisis performed by sorting the three dimensional first break pick datasetof the cube C into individual binned travel time attribute cubesrepresented by the individual voxels 50.

The standard deviation (σ) of the first break pick values for an examplesuch voxel is indicated schematically in FIG. 2C at 60, while a meanvalue of first break picks is indicated schematically at 62. Ananomalous or aberrant first break pick value or outlier is indicatedschematically at 64 in FIG. 2C. Based on the other first break pickvalues of the voxel 50 in FIG. 2B, the outlier first break pick 64 isone not satisfying the statistical filtering, and thus statisticallyunreliable. If included in first break auto picking, an outlier valuesuch as that at 64 is likely to distort the accuracy of furtherprocessing of the survey data.

When performing XYO binning, the bin size in the X and Y direction iskept large enough that enough actual CMP's fall into a bin in order toprovide significant statistics. A visualization of this process isprovided by FIG. 2A, where the binning domain becomes CMP-X, CMP-Y andoffset (XYO domain) with offset representing the pseudo depth. This typeof binning in XYO domain is different from conventional sorting in thecommon offset domain, as the latter collects data sharing a commonoffset but pertaining to different CMP's. Thus several common offsetvolumes are needed to visualize and provide quality control or QC of adataset of 3D first break travel time. The usual CMP sorting(time-offset) such as applied for reflected waves has been found notvery useful for refracted waves as it can show events with variablevelocities over the offset axis. The XYO binning provided according tothe present invention is therefore an effective representation of bothtime and offset domains where common properties at the CMP position arequickly assessed.

FIG. 2D is an example plot 66 of a mean travel time common offset mapformed according to the present invention for a certain offset asindicated by an arrow 68 referencing the location of that offset in thedata matrix of the cube C. The travel times mapped in FIG. 2C arestatistically processed values, after removal of outliers, with a colorkey 70 indicating the variations of the first break parameter values inmilliseconds (msec or ms).

The methodology according to the present invention is well suited forfuture increase of the number of channels used in seismic acquisitionsas robust statistics on even smaller bins are performed. The XYO/XYOAsorting domain allows the efficient extraction of parameters useful forenhancing the seismic processing workflow.

The concise representation and statistical analysis of a large 3D firstbreak travel-time dataset is already a very useful tool provided toseismic processors to enable the identification and removal of erroneouspicks. This step allows cleaning the data before starting travel timetomography. The properties of the XYOA hypercube can also be utilizedfor velocity analysis in alternative to or as an initial step beforeinvoking time-consuming inversion processes. These processes are definedas surface-consistent and subsurface-consistent analysis using conceptsdeveloped for reflection data processing.

Surface-Consistent and Subsurface-Consistent Analysis

Surface-consistent approaches are meant to decompose the recordedseismic data in terms representing the source and receiver functions andthe propagation term. The time-domain convolutional model representationof a seismic trace P_(ij) created by shot number i and recorded atreceiver j are written as:P _(ij)(t)=S _(i)(t)*R _(j)(t)*I′_(ij)(t)  (1)where S is the source function, R is the receiver impulse response, I′is the Green's function and * indicates convolution in time domain.

In order to achieve this task, trace data are typically sorted in CMPdomain, approximating the common reflection point, so that the collecteddata are assumed to represent the subsurface properties (subsurfaceconsistency) to be estimated by velocity analysis and removed from thedata by NMO correction before any attempt is made for the estimation ofthe source and receiver terms in (1) which contain the most variablecomponents of the recorded data (surface consistency). The convolutionalmodel can contain additional terms representing additional components(e.g. offset, azimuth) and the solution is sought in the log-frequencydomain to reduce the equation to a linear form (Taner and Koehler,1981). This process also separates the signal amplitude and phase inreal and imaginary parts so that the two components are analyzed andprocessed separately. Standard surface-consistent static approaches dealwith the phase shifts used to derive time shifts for the source andreceiver components to correct residual misalignment of reflected eventsin the CMP gather.

Similarly to reflection data, the factors influencing differentialarrival times of refracted events on a CMP-offset (XYO) gather arevelocity and statics (source and receiver), where velocity is by far themain factor. Velocity has to be evaluated and corrected beforeattempting the estimation of surface-consistent residual statics so theworkflow is divided in two steps that are performed automatically and inan iterative way. The steps include CMP velocity and residual staticsestimates, but it is to be recalled that only refracted waves areinvolved in the analysis.

Subsurface-Consistent Analysis: CMP Velocities

The source-receiver terms of the convolutional model (1) are neglect infirst instance and focus is made on the subsurface consistency at theCMP bin by performing first break statistics on XYO/XYOA gathers toidentify and reject outliers and derive mean travel-time and standarddeviation for each bin. Next, a 1D velocity function is determined forthe robust time-offset distributions derived for each CMP. A constrainedcubic spline fit is performed, imposing the following properties:

(a) Smoothness: the spline is an approximant;

(b) Monotonicity: travel time increases with offset;

(c) Negative curvature: velocity increases with depth; and

(d) Minimum and maximum slope: velocity is bounded.

A cubic spline approximant f(x) is determined that satisfies:

$\begin{matrix}{{{\min\mspace{14mu}{\sum_{k}\;{w_{k}\mspace{11mu}{{t_{k} - {f\left( x_{k} \right)}}}^{2}}}} + {\lambda{\sum_{k}\;{f^{''}\left( x_{k} \right)}^{2}}}}{{subject}\mspace{14mu}{to}\text{:}}{{\frac{1}{v_{\max}} < f^{\prime{(x_{k})}} < \frac{1}{v_{\min}}},{{f^{''}\left( x_{k} \right)} < 0},{k = 1},\ldots\mspace{14mu},N_{K},}} & (2)\end{matrix}$where k is an index spanning the offset bins in the XYO domain (thevertical axis of FIG. 2A), x_(k) are the offset values at the bincenter, t_(k) are the mean travel times in the bin, λ is a trade-offparameter between smoothness and data fit and v_(min), v_(max) arevelocity bounds. Using finite difference approximations for thederivatives f′ and f″, Equation (2) are expressed as a linear leastsquares problem with inequality constraints, which is solved withquadratic programming techniques (Gill et al., 1981). The data weightsw_(k) are derived from a combination of standard deviations obtainedduring the binning step and an offset-dependent function that privilegesthe fit for the short offset picks, in order to better capture nearsurface features.

An inversion procedure is used to generate travel times contaminatedwith Gaussian noise (σ=20 ms) as input data and a custom spline fitperformed. FIG. 3A is a plot resulting from constrained cubic splinefitting performed in the manner described above for a single CMP bin 50of the XYO hypercube C of FIG. 2A. The spline fit and the input data areidentified as indicated in FIG. 3A. FIG. 3B is a plot, as functions ofdepth for short offset picks, of a time velocity model as identified inFIG. 3B in comparison with an inverted velocity model.

After having computed a cubic spline function for each CMP bin, itsvalue and first derivative is evaluated on a set of discrete points toobtain travel times and apparent velocities, then a simpleintercept/delay-time method (Telford et al., 1990) is used to derive alayered velocity model from this piecewise linear function.

$\begin{matrix}{{z_{k} = \frac{v_{k}t_{k}}{2\mspace{11mu}{\cos\left( \theta_{k} \right)}}}{{Where}\text{:}}{{\theta_{k} = {\sin^{- 1}\left( \frac{v_{k}}{v_{N}} \right)}},{{{for}\mspace{14mu} k} = 1},\ldots\mspace{14mu},N_{K}}} & (3)\end{matrix}$

The constraints imposed on the spline guarantee that the method isapplicable and yields physically meaningful thicknesses and velocitiesfor the layers. As a result a 3D distribution of depth-velocity samplesis obtained which is interpolated to a regular grid with geostatisticalinterpolation algorithms, such as Kriging. The resulting pseudo-3Dvelocity cubes are used directly for evaluating long wavelength staticscorrections, or as an initial model for 3D tomography.

As will be described below, although there are approximations involved,the computed velocity field captures quite well the trends when comparedto results from tomography. The process requires a fraction of the timeneeded to run a topographic inversion, it is fully automated and doesnot depend on the choice of an initial model. The workflow describedabove implements refraction subsurface-consistent velocity analysis (CMPvelocity). It should be understood that the specificity of the solutionspresented above, such as: quadratic programming, delay times, mean,standard deviation, etc. are examples of a particular realization of theinvention and can be substituted by other methods. For example aninversion can be down with many different algorithms.

Surface-Consistent Analysis: Refraction Residual Statics

After the field statics (i.e. long wavelength refraction statics) havebeen corrected for, a cross-correlation of early arrival waveforms inthe XYOA gather is used to determine relative time shifts to be invertedfor surface-consistent refraction residual statics. A system of linearequations expressing the interaction of near surface layers and wavetravel is solved simultaneously to determine source and receiver terms.

The traces within each XYO bin are collected and form a gatheradditionally sorted in azimuth (FIG. 7A). Traces are linearmoveout—corrected or LMO—corrected (FIG. 7B) using the apparent velocityderived in the manner described above from the smooth spline fit,evaluated at the central offset in the bin. If the lateral velocityvariations are small, the gather should look approximately flat near thefirst arrived; this is the property that is exploited in order torecover residual statics. In this context the LMO step is similar to theNMO correction required in the reflection statics analysis, but itshould be pointed out that the automatic spline fit does not require anyvelocity picking or analysis, which represents a time consuming step inthe processing workflow. The “field” static is also applied at thisstage to correct for the effects of the macro velocity model.

The first-break picks are used to derive a preliminary flattening and arobust stack is performed to obtain a pilot trace. A cross-correlationanalysis is then carried out on all the traces on a narrow windowcentered on the first arrival, to obtain time shifts with respect to thepilot. It should be understood that other methodologies thancross-correlation may be used to measure similarity among the trace timeseries. For example, semblance (maximum stacking energy) can be used asa criteria rather than cross-correlation to form measures of theestimated time shifts. Having compensated most of the subsurfacevelocity effects, these shifts are assumed to be mainly due tosurface-consistent source and receiver terms. After thecross-correlation analysis is carried out for all the XYO gathers, alarge collection of time shifts T_(g) results. Rewriting Equation (1) interms of first arrival travel times obtains:S _(i) +R _(j) +G _(k) =T _(ij)  (4)where i the source index, j is the receiver index and k is the index ofthe XYO bin related to the trace ij. G_(k) represents an unknownsubsurface term that accounts for velocity variations and is solved fortogether with the source and receiver terms.

A linear system is set up of the form:Ax=t  (5)where t is the vector of estimated time shifts, x is the unknown vectorformed by S_(i), R_(j) and G_(k) and A is a matrix that is dependent onthe survey geometry. The number or rows in A corresponds to the totalnumber of traces used N_(T), while the number of columns is the sum ofthe number of sources (N_(S)), receivers (N_(R)) and XYO bins (N_(XYO))considered. This matrix is highly sparse as it contains 3 ones per row,indexing the source, receiver and XYO bin which contribute to each timeshift.

x^(T) = [S₁  …  S_(N_(S))  R₁  …  R_(N_(R))  G₁  …  G_(N_(XYO))]t^(T) = [T₁  …  T_(N_(T))] $A = \begin{bmatrix}1 & * & \ldots & * & 1 & * & \ldots & * & 1 & * & \ldots & * \\1 & * & \ldots & * & * & 1 & \ldots & * & 1 & * & \ldots & * \\\ldots & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots & * & \ldots & \ldots & \ldots & * \\* & * & \ldots & 1 & * & * & \ldots & 1 & * & * & \ldots & 1\end{bmatrix}$

In this example the first time shift is for i=1, j=2 and is located inthe offset bin k=1; the second is for i=1, j=2 with k=1; the last row isfor i=N_(S), j=N_(R) with k=N_(XYO).

The solution is sought with damped weighted least squares:{circumflex over (x)}=(A ^(T) WA+λD)⁻¹ A ^(T) Wt  (6)

The diagonal matrix W contains the correlation coefficients of eachtrace with respect to the pilot trace, which is a good estimate of thereliability of that particular data point. The damping matrix D, alsodiagonal, ensures that the system is solved and prevents noisecorrupting estimations of poorly resolved unknown parameters. Thediagonal elements are scaled such that the variations of the G_(k) termsare damped to a bigger extent than the source and receiver components.Even if the size can become very large (billions of rows, hundreds ofthousands of columns), the system is extremely sparse and is efficientlysolved with modern parallel sparse solvers. Having estimated source andreceiver refraction residual statics, the correction is applied to thetraces and the alignment of the first arrivals on sample XYO gathersassessed (FIG. 7C).

For large high-fold 3D surveys, the bin sizes are kept small so that theassumptions described above are verified well enough to give goodresults in practice. In the presence of azimuthal anisotropy or shallow3D features, the assumption of flat first arrivals in a XYO bin mayfail. However, it is expected to observe a smooth azimuth-dependenttrend, which are subtracted prior to cross-correlation by fitting aleast squares smoothing spline function to the travel times as afunction of azimuth and imposing periodic end conditions to account forthe circular nature of the angular domain. Alternatively, additionalfunctional terms (equivalent to the residual normal movement (RNMO) termof Wiggins et al., “Residual Statics Analysis as a General LinearInverse Problem: Geophysics 41, pp. 922-938 (1976) are added to thesystem of equations and solved imposing smoothness across theneighboring XYO bins.

Workflow

A comprehensive computer implemented methodology of modeling to performautomated near surface analysis by surface-consistent refractionaccording to the present invention is illustrated schematically in FIGS.4 and 5. FIG. 4 illustrates a flow chart F setting forth schematically apreferred sequence of steps of a computer implemented process accordingto the methodology of the present invention for automatic near surfaceanalysis by surface-consistent refraction. FIG. 5 illustrates a flowchart T setting forth the methodology of the present invention for firstbreak pick prediction during the automatic near surface analysis dataprocessing steps of FIG. 4.

The flow chart F and the flow chart T illustrate the structure of thelogic of the present invention as embodied in computer program software.Those skilled in the art will appreciate that the flow charts illustratethe structures of computer program code elements including logiccircuits on an integrated circuit that function according to thisinvention. Manifestly, the invention is practiced in its essentialembodiment by a machine component that renders the program code elementsin a form that instructs a digital processing apparatus (that is, acomputer) to perform a sequence of data transformation or processingsteps corresponding to those shown.

As are seen from the flow chart F, processing according to the presentinvention includes automatic picking processing as indicated generallyat 100, field statics (for long wavelength near surface timecorrections) processing as indicated generally at 102, and refractionresidual statics (for short wavelength near surface time corrections)processing as indicated generally at 104.

Automatic picking processing 100 begins with an initial or startingfirst break dataset as indicated at step 108 being processed for nearsurface analysis in a sequence of computer implemented automatic pickingprocessing steps to form an output refined first break pick dataset asindicated at step 112.

During the automatic picking processing sequence 100, as indicated inmore detail in FIG. 5, the starting FB-pick dataset 108 is sorted duringstep 114 in XYO/XYOA gathers and processed as described above withrespect to FIGS. 2A, 2B and 2C. The binning in the XYO/XYOA domainduring step 114 is followed by statistical analysis and rejection ofoutliers during step 116. During the analysis by computer processing instep 116, the mean and standard deviation is evaluated for each bin 5,and outliers are rejected based on a defined standard deviationthreshold as shown in FIG. 2C. This leads to a robust estimate of traveltime vs. offset curves with corresponding standard deviation for use asthe refined FB dataset 112. FIG. 7A is an output display of an exampledataset provided as inputs for further statics processing. The robusttime-offset curves are used to predict the behavior of noisy picksduring step 117 and to guide an automatic re-picking during step 118 foradjusting or reforming of the first break dataset 108.

CMP-velocity functions are then generated during step 122 (FIGS. 4 and5) for the cleaned FB-pick dataset formed during step 112. TheCMP-velocity functions generating is performed with spline fitting orother method as described above with respect to FIGS. 3A and 3B. Thegenerated CMP-velocity functions are also interpolated in 3D (apseudo-3D velocity model). Then a 3D forward calculation is performedduring step 124 (FIGS. 4 and 5) to obtain predicted first break datapicks as indicated at 125 used as seed in step 117 for subsequentautomatic first break picking during step 118.

As an alternative, the mean value for each XYO bin of the cleanedFB-pick data are used directly as a FB-pick prediction values 125 asshown in FIG. 5. It has been found that the use of statistics to predictthe behavior of FB-pick is valid when the errors follow a Gaussiandistribution that may not represent the actual behavior of the FB-pickespecially at the initial steps of the iterative procedure. Often theestimates from the automatic picker are biased by late energeticarrivals which introduce systematic errors in the prediction. In suchcases the use of an external method relating to the physics ofpropagation of seismic waves (3D forward calculation) during step 124tends to provide the correct FB-pick estimates to be used in thesuccessive automatic picking iteration.

Field Statics Processing

In the initial steps of field statics processing 102 (FIG. 4), oncestable first break data are obtained, corresponding one-dimensional 1Dvelocity-depth functions are calculated during step 122 for each CMP, asdescribed. A 3D forward travel time calculation is performed in step124. A determination is made during step 126 based on the obtainedtravel time model from step 124 to evaluate the overall r.m.s. residualof the refined first break pick dataset. Step 126 is performed todetermine whether the r.m.s. residual is within acceptable specifiedminimum levels. If so, processing proceeds to step 128 for calculationof the statics (field statics). If not, during step 130 an additional 3Dtomography step can be performed to further refine the velocity model.

It should be noted that the workflow of the portion of refractionresidual statics by field statics processing 102 fields is to identifyand to adjust during step 132 the long wavelength component of thestatics correction. Therefore, by field statics processing 102, thefield statics correction is also adequate to satisfactorily align phasesin the XYO gather and thus to avoid cycle skipping in thecross-correlation analysis.

Refraction Residual Statics Processing

During the refraction residual statics processing 104 (FIG. 4),surface-consistant analysis includes refraction residual staticsestimation. In the refraction residual statics estimation, traces in theXYO gather are first corrected during step 140 for residual linearmoveout (LMO) and then cross-correlated during step 142 to a pilot tracefor the estimation of relative time shifts. The analysis and processingis performed for each CMP bin 50 over a range of offset classes toprovide a large database of time shifts. The time shifts obtained aresimultaneously inverted during step 144 for the source and receiversurface-consistent statics.

The improved alignment of traces is verified during step 146 foradequacy on the XYO gather (FIG. 7C) and successively on the seismicstack where the reflected events can increase stacking power and lateralcontinuity. FIG. 7A is a plot of traces sorted in XYO gathers with fieldstatics corrections applied for surface-consistent evaluation of staticsfor an offset of 1250 m. FIG. 7B is a plot of the same data trace gatheras FIG. 7A after residual LMO correction is applied and time shifts areestimated by cross-correlation with a pilot trace. FIG. 7C is a plot ofthe same data after surface-consistent refraction residual statics areapplied to the traces in the gather.

If the alignment procedure is indicated successful as a result of step146, the trace dataset with combined statics applied is then passed tothe usual reflection processing as indicated at 148 in FIG. 4, whereimproved velocity analysis are performed and additional high frequencyreflection statics are calculated. If alignment is indicatedunsuccessful as a result of step 146, field static processing 102 may berepeated with refraction residual time delays corrections applied duringstep 150 to the first break pick dataset from step 112 to enable therepetition of the CMP-based velocity analysis processing step 122.

In the data examples discussed, good phase stability in the XYO gatherscan be observed of the arrivals near the first break so that no waveletshaping was made necessary before the step of cross-correlation (seeFIG. 7A). In case variable wavelet phase rotations are observed, apreventive wavelet shaping process may be performed beforecross-correlation.

Data Processing System

As illustrated in FIG. 6, the data processing system D includes acomputer 200 having a processor 202 and memory 204 coupled to theprocessor 202 to store operating instructions, control information anddatabase records therein. The data processing system D may be amulticore processor with nodes such as those from Intel Corporation orAdvanced Micro Devices (AMD), an HPC Linux cluster computer or amainframe computer of any conventional type of suitable processingcapacity such as those available from International Business Machines(IBM) of Armonk, N.Y., or other source. The data processing system D mayalso be a computer of any conventional type of suitable processingcapacity, such as a personal computer, laptop computer, or any othersuitable processing apparatus. It should thus be understood that anumber of commercially available data processing systems and types ofcomputers may be used for this purpose.

The processor 202 may be in the form of a personal computer having auser interface 206 and an output display 208 for displaying output dataor records of processing of seismic survey data according to the presentinvention. The output display 208 includes components such as a printerand an output display screen capable of providing printed outputinformation or visible displays in the form of graphs, data sheets,graphical images, data plots and the like as output records or images.

The user interface 206 of computer 200 also includes a suitable userinput device or input/output control unit 210 to provide a user accessto control or access information and database records and operate thecomputer 200.

Data processing system D further includes a database 214 stored inmemory, which may be internal memory 204, or an external, networked, ornon-networked memory as indicated at 216 in an associated databaseserver 218. The database 214 also contains various seismic dataincluding the in the form of seismic traces, source and geophoneposition co-ordinates, survey times and parameters and other data.

The data processing system D includes program code 220 stored in a datastorage device, such as memory 204 of the computer 200. The program code220, according to the present invention is in the form of computeroperable instructions causing the data processor 202 to perform themethodology of improving the selection of first break picks for seismicdata in seismic data processing and improving quality control of thefirst break picks.

It should be noted that program code 220 may be in the form ofmicrocode, programs, routines, or symbolic computer operable languagesthat provide a specific set of ordered operations that control thefunctioning of the data processing system D and direct its operation.The instructions of program code 220 may be stored in non-transitorymemory 204 of the computer 200, or on computer diskette, magnetic tape,conventional hard disk drive, electronic read-only memory, opticalstorage device, or other appropriate data storage device having acomputer usable medium stored thereon. Program code 220 may also becontained on a data storage device such as server 208 as anon-transitory computer readable medium, as shown.

The processor 202 of the computer 200 accesses the seismic survey datapressure transient testing data and other input data measurements asdescribed above to perform the logic of the present invention, which maybe executed by the processor 202 as a series of computer-executableinstructions. The stored computer operable instructions cause the dataprocessor computer 200 to determine first break pick times for theseismic survey data traces in the manner described above and shown inFIGS. 3 and 10. Results of such processing are then available on outputdisplay 208.

Application of Processing to Land Data

An example dataset selected for processing according to the presentinvention is a 3D land case in central Saudi Arabia centered on aprominent geomorphological feature in the form of a bed or valley knownas Wadi Sahba. The area is considered to be one of the most difficultseismic exploration problems in the whole of Saudi Arabia. The extremelylow quality of the seismic data in the wadi section prevents thereliable interpretation of the boundaries of important oil and gasfields that are terminated by the wadi structure. The structuralinterpretation of the wadi (Weijermars, R., “Plio-Quarterly Movement ofthe East Arabian Block” Geo Arabia, 3, 509-539, 1998) has postulated theexistence of a major transcurrent fault system, possibly still active,which generated the wadi Sahba depression and other similar structuresto the west. Transpressional and transtensional stress regimes along thefaults generate complex patterns of flower faults reaching the surface.The combination of scattering due to faulting and of sharp velocityvariations in the near surface generates formidable problem conditionsfor seismic imaging. Complementary high-resolution geophysical methodssuch as described in (Colombo et al., “Super Resolution Multi-GeophysicsImagine of a Complex Wadi for Near Surface Corrections”, 85^(th) AnnualInternational Meeting, SEG, Expanded Abstracts, 2015) have beendescribed.

The processing according to the present invention as illustrated by theworkflow of FIG. 4 according to the present invention was applied to aportion of the Wadi Sahba seismic dataset, and the obtained results werecompared to a conventional analysis based on 3D travel time tomography.One of the goals of seismic imaging by processing according to thepresent invention is a better definition of the edges of the wadistructure and related faults, which determine the extent of thereservoir's continuation into the wadi area.

Near Surface Velocity Examples

An already refined first break pick dataset from step 120 during thecomputer processing workflow shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 is a starting pointfor near surface velocity processing. FIG. 8A is a reference time sliceat 164 ms showing the structures characterizing the wadi area. CMP-basedtravel time-offset functions (FIG. 8B) are calculated during step 122.FIG. 8B is a mean travel time map of such CMP-based travel time-offsetfunctions at 500 m offset. An associated numerical key is provided withFIG. 8B indicating the travel time values displayed. The CMP-basedtravel time-offset functions are transformed during step 122 tovelocity-depth functions and interpolated to obtain a pseudo-3D velocitymodel, FIG. 8C is a plot of a pseudo-3D velocity model in the form of avelocity map 340 m a.s.l., or above sea level from depth conversion oftravel time-offset distributions in each CMP location.

Field Statics Examples

Benefits according to the present invention for derivation of nearsurface corrections are now discussed in the context of comparativeexamples. It should be recognized that in addition to near surfacecorrections, potential benefits are provided from using the pseudo-3Dvelocity model according to the present invention as a starting pointfor 3D tomography. In order to provide fair comparisons with certainindustry standard processing methods, the comparisons discussed are of anear surface solution according to the present invention with anindependent solution obtained using a commercial tomographic packagewidely used in the industry, which has also been used for benchmarkpurposes.

The input first break picks and the seismic dataset are the same in bothcases and particular care has been exercised to repeat thepre-processing of the seismic traces using the same flows and parametersused for the benchmark dataset. Based on this, the differences observedin the final results are only related to the different procedures usedfor deriving the near surface solution. FIG. 9A displays a staticssolution from the tomographic velocity field, as obtained by theconventional tomographic processing. FIG. 9B is a display of a staticssolution obtained from CMP velocities (i.e. depth-converted time-offsetfunctions) calculated in accordance with the present invention (thepseudo-3D velocity field of FIG. 8C) for the purposes of comparison withFIG. 9A. An associated numerical key indicates in common for FIGS. 9Aand 9B the displayed amount of statics in ms.

An analysis of bordered areas of interest 90 and 92 at comparablelocations within FIGS. 9A and 9B indicates that the statics of FIG. 9Bobtained with the pseudo-3D velocity model are better representative ofthe expected subsurface geology of the wadi. This is inferred by lookingat the seismic time slice of FIG. 8A. In most of the area, such as at 90and 92, the wadi structure is better defined by the statistical approach(FIG. 9B) showing sharp edges and larger statics contrasts frominside/outside of the wadi.

Processing according to the present invention can result in largerstatics corrections applied to the edges of the structure; one of thetargets of the exploration. The southeast (SE) quadrant of the area ofinterest is characterized by dunes. This is another area where the twostatics solutions show differences with the conventional tomographicsolution (FIG. 9A) deriving much lower velocities than the solutionaccording to the present invention (FIG. 9B).

Refraction Residual Statics Examples

A second aspect of the surface-consistent refraction method deals withcalculation of refraction residual statics which is applied to a subsetof the area of interest in FIGS. 9A and 9B. The focus of determiningrefraction residual statics is on delineation of the edges of the wadistructure in an area of large lateral velocity contrasts. FIG. 10A is aplot of field static obtained from the benchmark tomographic model ofFIG. 9A. Again, an associated numerical key is present for FIG. 10A aswell as FIGS. 10B, 10C and 10D indicating statics values in ms. Toperform refraction residual statics determination according to thepresent invention, trace data are first sorted in the XYO domain usedfor the initial first break analysis. FIG. 10B is a plot of fieldstatics obtained from the statics solution obtained from the pseudo-3Dvelocity model of FIG. 9B. The field statics defined for FIG. 9B areused to shift the traces.

Cross-correlation of a pilot trace with all the other traces in thegather provides the time shifts that are inverted for surface-consistentstatics. In each offset bin, traces are conveniently sorted in azimuthclasses to enable the identification of trends related to 3D effectsand/or to azimuthal anisotropy. FIG. 10C is a plot of surface-consistentrefraction residual statics obtained as a result. The full solution ofsurface-consistent refraction statics model (field and refractionresidual statics of FIGS. 10B and 10C, respectively) is shown by FIG.10D.

The sharpness of the results obtained according to the present invention(FIG. 10D) is clearly visible and also correlates very well with theknown and expected geology. The calculated surface-consistent refractionresidual statics were obtained by removing the mean value during theestimation of the time shifts through cross-correlation. This procedurehelps in preventing that subsurface velocity anomalies (3D velocityand/or anisotropy) leaking into the surface-consistent calculations. Asa result, the refraction residual statics (FIG. 10C) range between −15to 16 ms, a range consistent with values of residual statics typicallyfound in seismic data processing.

FIGS. 11A through 11C and FIGS. 12A through 12C are display ofcomparative results resulting from application of the different staticsmodels to the seismic data is shown for two different time slices. Thefirst time slice is a relatively shallow one at 464 ms (FIGS. 11Athrough 11C) and the other is a deeper time slice (at reservoir level)at 1440 ms (FIGS. 12A through 12C). The time slices of FIG. 11C and FIG.12C represent results obtained from surface-consistent refractionstatics according to the present invention. These results can becompared to FIG. 11A and FIG. 12A which are plots of results obtainedfrom an elevation statics solution using a fixed replacement velocity of3,250 m/s, and also compared with results from the benchmark staticssolutions (FIG. 11B and FIG. 12B) obtained from the conventionalindependent tomographic approach.

Minimal processing is applied to the data at this stage with only twovelocity analyses performed in the subarea, along with amplitudecompensation, linear noise removal and deconvolution. The intent is toisolate the contributions to the seismic data of different staticsmodels. Regardless of the time slice or cross-section analyzed, resultsin FIGS. 11C and 12C indicate that the surface-consistent refractionmethodology according to the present invention provides better resultsin the three processing methods. A noticeable improvement in thecontinuity and stacking power of reflected events by surface-consistentrefraction is observed over the simplest statics model (elevationstatics) and the benchmark tomostatics solution. The boundaries of thewadi can be seen to come into focus and enable a better geometricaldefinition of the reservoir limits in the area.

A further assessment is provided by comparing the effects of the totalstatics solution (refraction+reflection) obtained by the independentstate-of-the-art tomographic benchmark approach with the results ofstatistical surface-consistent processing according to the presentinvention. The central portion of the wadi is displayed in FIGS. 13A and13B, where it can be observed from the areas indicated by arrows 314that results of processing (FIG. 13B) according to the present inventionprovides better results than the conventional tomographic approach (FIG.13A) in the low S/N area and equivalent results in areas of good dataquality. Similar conclusions are derived in every portion of the seismicvolume analyzed with the surface-consistent refraction approach alwaysproviding equivalent of better results than the tomographic approach.

Advantages related to the refraction statics processing and analysis 104as described in FIG. 4, and demonstrated in FIG. 11C and FIG. 12C,include that the seismic traces can show a better alignment of reflectedevents in the CMP gathers. This facilitates seismic velocity analysisand reduces the potential of cycle skips during the cross-correlation.Another advantage of the present invention is provided in subsurfaceareas characterized by noise in the seismic data. In such conditions itis considerably easier to identify and follow the phase of refractedevents at relatively short offsets rather than trying to identify andcross-correlate the weak reflected events submerged within the noise.The surface-consistent refraction analysis according to the presentinvention provides a head start for the steps of reflection statics andvelocity analysis.

Processing according to the present invention is fully automated. Whencoupled with automatic quality control and refinement of first breakpicks (as described in Applicants' commonly owned co-pending U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 14/845,627, “Automatic Quality Control of SeismicTravel Time”, filed Sep. 4, 2015), now U.S. Pat. No. 10,067,255, itbecomes a powerful tool that can dramatically reduce the cycle time forthe analysis of the near surface in seismic data processing. The fullscalability of the methodology on distributed memory machines, with theintrinsic low computing requirements, makes the procedure veryefficient. The near surface production cycle is estimated to beshortened by a factor of at least twenty of costly computing time withminimum human involvement.

The invention has been sufficiently described so that a person withaverage knowledge in the field of geophysics and seismic explorationmethods may reproduce and obtain the results mentioned in the inventionherein. Nonetheless, any skilled person in the field of technique,subject of the invention herein, may carry out modifications notdescribed in the request herein, to apply these modifications to adetermined structure and methodology, or in the use and practicethereof, requires the claimed matter in the following claims; suchstructures and processes shall be covered within the scope of theinvention.

It should be noted and understood that there are improvements andmodifications made of the present invention described in detail abovewithout departing from the spirit or scope of the invention as set forthin the accompanying claims.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method performed in a computer comprising amemory and a processor of forming measures of near surface correctionsof seismic survey data in the form of a set of seismic survey tracesobtained from records of seismic energy travel from seismic sources toan array of seismic detector geophones during a seismic survey,comprising the computer implemented steps of: storing in the memorycomputer operable instructions causing the computer to form the measuresof near surface corrections of the seismic survey data; performing inthe processor, under control of the stored computer operableinstructions, steps to form measures of near surface corrections ofseismic survey data comprising: (a) assembling in the computer a seismictrace first break dataset detected by the array of detector geophonesduring the seismic survey as a result of first arrival times at thedetector geophones of seismic energy from the sources; (b) sorting thearrival times of the seismic trace first break dataset into offset binsof a travel time attribute cube according to common midpoints forrefracted seismic wave travel between the seismic sources and individualones of the detector geophones of the array, the common midpoints beingorganized into dimensional offsets of the detector geophones of thearray; (c) removing anomalous arrival times from the sorted arrivaltimes in the offset bins to form a refined first break dataset; (d)forming common midpoint velocity functions for the traces of the offsetbins based on the refined first break dataset; (e) forming measures offield static corrections for traces of the offset bins based on thecommon midpoint velocity functions; (f) applying the measures of fieldstatics corrections to the set of seismic survey traces to form a set offield statics corrected seismic traces; (g) forming measures ofrefraction residual statics corrections for the set of field staticscorrected seismic traces; and (h) applying the measures of refractionresidual statics corrections to the traces of set of field staticscorrected seismic traces to form near surface corrected seismic traces.2. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the dimensionaloffsets of the detector geophones of the array comprise a commonmidpoint x axis of the seismic survey.
 3. The computer implementedmethod of claim 2, wherein the dimensional offsets of the detectorgeophones of the array comprise a common midpoint y axis of the seismicsurvey.
 4. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein thedimensional offsets of the detector geophones of the array comprise anoffset axis.
 5. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein thedimensional offsets of the detector geophones of the array comprise anazimuth axis.
 6. The computer implemented method of claim 1, furtherincluding the processor, under control of the stored computer operableinstructions, performing a step of forming a confidence indicatormeasure of the first break arrival times in individual ones of theoffset bins of the travel time attribute cube.
 7. The computerimplemented method of claim 6, wherein the processor in performing thestep of forming a confidence indicator measure further performs a stepof storing the formed confidence indicator measure of the first breakarrival times of the adjusted arrival trace dataset.
 8. The computerimplemented method of claim 1, further including the processorperforming reflection processing on the near surface corrected seismictraces.
 9. A data processing system forming measures of near surfacecorrections of seismic survey data in the form of a set of seismicsurvey traces obtained from records of seismic energy travel fromseismic sources to an array of seismic detector geophones during aseismic survey, comprising: a memory storing computer operableinstructions causing the data processing system to form the measures ofnear surface corrections of the seismic survey data; a processorperforming under control of the computer operable instructions stored inthe memory steps of: (a) assembling in the computer a seismic tracefirst break dataset detected by the array of detector geophones duringthe seismic survey as a result of first arrival times at the detectorgeophones of seismic energy from the sources; (b) sorting the arrivaltimes of the seismic trace first break dataset into offset bins of atravel time attribute cube according to common midpoints for refractedseismic wave travel between the seismic sources and individual ones ofthe detector geophones of the array, the common midpoints beingorganized into dimensional offsets of the detector geophones of thearray; (c) removing anomalous arrival times from the sorted arrivaltimes in the offset bins to form a refined first break dataset; (d)forming common midpoint velocity functions for the traces of the offsetbins based on the refined first break dataset; (e) forming measures offield static corrections for traces of the offset bins based on thecommon midpoint velocity functions; (f) applying the measures of fieldstatics corrections to the set of seismic survey traces to form a set offield statics corrected seismic traces; (g) forming measures ofrefraction residual statics corrections for the set of field staticscorrected seismic traces; and (h) applying the measures of refractionresidual statics corrections to the traces of set of field staticscorrected seismic traces to form near surface corrected seismic traces;and a memory receiving for storage the near surface corrected seismictraces.
 10. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein thedimensional offsets of the detector geophones of the array comprise acommon midpoint x axis of the seismic survey.
 11. The data processingsystem of claim 10, wherein the dimensional offsets of the detectorgeophones of the array comprise a common midpoint y axis of the seismicsurvey.
 12. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein thedimensional offsets of the detector geophones of the array comprise anoffset axis.
 13. The data processing system of claim 9, wherein thedimensional offsets of the detector geophones of the array comprise anazimuth axis.
 14. The data processing system of claim 9, furtherincluding the processor under control of the computer operableinstructions stored in the memory performing a step of forming aconfidence indicator measure of the first break arrival times inindividual ones of the offset bins of the travel time attribute cube.15. The data processing system of claim 14, wherein the processor inperforming the step of forming a confidence indicator measure furtherperforms a step of storing the formed confidence indicator measure ofthe arrival times of the adjusted arrival trace dataset.
 16. The dataprocessing system of claim 9, further including the processor performingreflection processing on the near surface corrected seismic traces. 17.A data storage device having stored in a non-transitory computerreadable medium computer operable instructions for causing a dataprocessing system comprising a memory and a processor to form measuresof near surface corrections of seismic survey data in the form of a setof seismic survey traces obtained from records of seismic energy travelfrom seismic sources to an array of seismic detector geophones during aseismic survey, the instructions stored in the data storage devicecausing the data processing system to perform the following steps:storing in the memory computer operable instructions causing the dataprocessing system to form the measures of near surface corrections ofthe seismic survey data; performing in the processor, under control ofthe stored computer operable instructions, steps to form measures ofnear surface corrections of seismic survey data comprising: (a)assembling in the computer a seismic trace first break dataset detectedby the array of detector geophones during the seismic survey as a resultof first arrival times at the detector geophones of seismic energy fromthe sources; (b) sorting the arrival times of the seismic trace firstbreak dataset into offset bins of a travel time attribute cube accordingto common midpoints for refracted seismic wave travel between theseismic sources and individual ones of the detector geophones of thearray, the common midpoints being organized into dimensional offsets ofthe detector geophones of the array; (c) removing anomalous arrivaltimes from the sorted arrival times in the offset bins to form refined afirst break dataset; (d) forming common midpoint velocity functions forthe traces of the offset bins based on the refined first break dataset;(e) forming measures of field static corrections for traces of theoffset bins based on the common midpoint velocity functions; (f)applying the measures of field statics corrections to the set of seismicsurvey traces to form a set of field statics corrected seismic traces;(g) forming measures of refraction residual statics corrections for theset of field statics corrected seismic traces; and (h) applying themeasures of refraction residual statics corrections to the traces of setof field statics corrected seismic traces to form near surface correctedseismic traces.
 18. The data storage device of claim 17, wherein thedimensional offsets of the detector geophones of the array comprise acommon midpoint x axis of the seismic survey.
 19. The data storagedevice of claim 18, wherein the dimensional offsets of the detectorgeophones of the array comprise a common midpoint y axis of the seismicsurvey.
 20. The data storage device of claim 17, wherein the dimensionaloffsets of the detector geophones of the array comprise an offset axis.21. The data storage device of claim 17, wherein the dimensional offsetsof the detector geophones of the array comprise an azimuth axis.
 22. Thedata storage device of claim 17, wherein the instructions furthercomprise instructions for a step of forming a confidence indicatormeasure of the first break arrival times in individual ones of theoffset bins of the travel time attribute cube.
 23. The data storagedevice of claim 22, wherein the instructions for the step of forming aconfidence indicator measure further comprise instructions for storingthe confidence indicator measure of the arrival times of the adjustedarrival trace dataset.
 24. The data storage device of claim 17, whereinthe instructions further comprise instructions for performing reflectionprocessing on the near surface corrected seismic traces.